Goa, Jan. 10 -- India has strongly refuted remarks made by United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who suggested that the long-pending India-US trade agreement failed to move forward because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not make a phone call to US President Donald Trump.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) dismissed the assertion, calling the characterisation of the negotiations "not accurate," and emphasised that both countries have been engaged in sustained and substantive discussions on a bilateral trade pact for more than a year.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India and the United States had committed to negotiating a trade agreement as early as February 13 last year and have since conducted multiple rounds of...